Oh, the horror! We left at 4:30am to catch a sunrise tour of the ancient Champa kingdom, located 30 miles away in the jungle, and surrounded by verdant hills. There was not a lot of conversation as we drove over in the dark but when we arrived at the UNESCO site, we all woke up. Mỹ Sơn is stunning, featuring the temples from the Champa capital erected between the 4th and 13th centuries. The Champa came from the Indian subcontinent and practiced a Hindu religion. The temples are not dissimilar from what you might find in Angkor Wat or Bali, but more ancient and less ornate. Of course the sanctuary is even less ornate due to American bombings. It was jarring to find craters and centuries of culture reduces to bricks in several of the sites.
We were unaware at the time that we booked the trip, that we would be arriving at the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, which occurred on 16 March. As beautiful as our vacation has been, the spector of war and destruction follow. Even the statue of Shiva did not survive intact.
You can read about the UNESCO world heritage here:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/949
You can find out about the massacre that happened 50 years ago here:
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/my-lai-massacre
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